Changes
Hendo741, 12 years ago
Made a few changes such as moving Abrupt Decay main deck. I've been testing this with some friends and it is 10-0 in match play. It has faced mono red aggro, U/W control, R/U/W, U mill, and some randomness.
Thanks for the comments and keep them coming, but please realize that this is not your standard zombie aggro deck and isn't meant to be. Its a zombie aggro semi-reanimator deck. Discarding 2 zombies to feed Lotleth Troll to bring them right back to my hand (or battlefield for Gravecrawler) for one black mana is priceless.
FNM
JasonMB, 12 years ago
Think we had 28 people - so 5 rounds then top 8.
1st round was against fast green aggro deck. Rancor, Strangleroot Geist, Predator Ooze, Ulvenwald Tracker, Champion of Lambholt, and Giant Growth. I went 2-1 just like last week when I played the same deck. Lot of pressure to get some control fast - but Cyclone Rift is still good early game...especially when they want to Rancor their guy and I rift it response...so Rancor fizzles and goes to graveyard.
2nd round was against that Thragtusk, Wolfir Avenger, Restoration Angel, Strangleroot Geist, Silverblade Paladin, Rancor style deck. I was able to get my aggro out quicker and lock him down...he misplayed when he didn't attack with a bound paladin with 2 rancors because he thought my Precinct Captain was untapped and he didn't want to trade. Saved me a lot of damage first game. 2-0 here.
3rd round was against blue/white control. Pure control. Barely a creature. He ran 2 Jace, Architect of Thought, 2 Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, 4 Dissipate, 4 Syncopate, Oblivion Ring, Detention Sphere, Supreme Verdict, Cyclonic Rift, Think Twice, Sphinx's Revelation, Snapcaster Mage, and Azorius Keyrune. I went 1-2 here. He got a Tamiyo emblem both games he won against me...that makes it impossible to beat a control deck. The time I won was due to starting with 2 Champion of the Parish and a couple other humans. I was just able to blitz him. So annoying on the 3rd match because the entire game I did not draw a Cavern of Souls - really really frustrating when I needed to play my creatures and couldn't really.
4th round was against weenie humans - Hamlet Captain, Champion of the Parish, Mayor of Avabruck Flip, Travel Preparations, Dearly Departed, and Thraben Doomsayer. Pretty easy wins 2-0. My aggro was just as strong (actually he didn't have a way to deal with flying, so Lyev Skyknight bound with a Silverblade Paladin was gg.
5th round was against another green deck. Wolfir Silverheart and the like. So many people playing this style of deck. 2-0
I was ranked 3rd for the top 8 line up and got matched up against a buddy playing black/red zombie/vampires. Gravecrawler, Diregraf Ghoul, Geralf's Messenger, Blood Artist, Falkenrath Aristocrat, Dreadbore, Should have been a good match up for me...but I choked and went 0-2. 2nd game was stuck on 5 mana and had 2 answers in my hand that I needed 6 and 7 mana for. Terminus and Angel of Glory's Rise - both would have saved me.
I made some trades after and during the matches and acquired two more Terminus, a 4th Cyclonic Rift, 2 Nevermore, a 2nd Isperia, Supreme Judge, and then pulled another Sphinx's Revelation. So I'm going to swap some cards around. I now have 4 rifts, 3 terminus, 3 verdicts to decide upon which will be mainboard and sideboard. Currently running 7 total of those 3 cards. so, maybe I'll do 4 rifts main, 2 terminus main, 1 verdict main, or 3,2,2....not sure, but the others will be sideboard so I can swap in and out between those similar style cards. I'm going to sideboard the extra Sphinx cards and nevermores. The one Nevermore I did side in was always really helpful. I also want to add more aggro to my sideboard for that full control deck - Counterflux would be nice to be able to splash in the sideboard....but I don't want to sideboard red mana plus that...but maybe Elgaud Shieldmate would be a good sideboard - could cast it with the Caverns so it can't be countered, and then make it and another hexproof. And it's still human.
FNM #2
Pelorn, 12 years ago
Played vs:
Esper Tokens 2-0
WGBR Reanimator 2-1
Jund Zombies 2-1
Jund Zombies 1-2
Maybe it's my meta, but aggressive decks seem to be making a resurgence. So, 3x Centaur Healer are back in the maindeck.
Sigarda, Host of Herons was a beast, hexproof flying is amazing in the current meta, especially if we have Gavony Township and maybe Rancor after sideboard.
We trimmed a couple of our singles, namely Entreat the Angels and Collective Blessing.
Rest in Peace is the best sideboard card to have right now. It crushes reanimator, is good vs zombies and UW flash, and can be considered anytime you see Snapcaster Mage, flashback spells, etc, since it doesn't really hurt us to play it.
4 Rancor are now in the side to help us become an aggro deck for when we don't want to go late game. However, I played 3 Garruk, Primal Hunter and might do so again, he was great at dominating the board and maintaining pressure through sweepers.
Pithing Needle is for planeswalkers and Olivia Voldaren, Ray of Revelation is for Detention Sphere and Rancor, but it might get cut.
Tournament at Cab Comics - 11-16-12
zandl, 12 years ago
Pretty basic night. At my store, if you pay the $5 entry fee to FNM without store credit, you get a free pack. I opened an Angel of Serenity, so I was already way ahead for the night.
Played against Grixis control and lost 1-2 due to horrible opening hands that had to be put back. Played against American control and won 2-1 with the loss being a game that took about 35 minutes with both of our playsets of Angel of Serenity. Played against G/W Aggro (my best match-up) and won handily. Played against Werewolf Aggro and stabilized at 4 life in the first game and won, then stabilized at 3 life in the second game and won. Split into Top 8. Played against the same Grixis control deck from the first round and won in 2 games. Top 4 prize split. It was a win-a-box tourney, so each of the Top 4 got 18 packs. Not too shabby. 3rd place in standings.
I'm really glad I swapped out Centaur Healer for Borderland Ranger. Being able to fetch out my next land-drop versus simply gaining 3 life is a huge advantage. With him, I can keep a hand with just 2 lands, a Farseek, him, and whatever, and still be fine for the first four turns.
I opened up Abrupt Decay, Temple Garden
, Overgrown Tomb, Detention Sphere, a foil Chromatic Lantern, Dreadbore, 2x Lotleth Troll, and a slew of crap-rares. I also opened a pack with all 5 Guildgates in it. Thought that was cool.
alaska1415, 12 years ago
Built an Azorius Deck in 2 minutes before my LMS started their tournament. Did okay and really liked the idea behind the guild. Looking to put more of a win condition in there now.
Antebios, 12 years ago
-1 Disembowel +1 Death Wind
-1 Swamp +1 Soul Conduit
-1 Mark of the Oni +1 Wicked Akuba
Small Change
Pinstripes, 12 years ago
I wanted to recycle my graveyard a little more. To do this, I added in Mnemonic Wall and Sword of Light and Shadow.
Wylmryk, 12 years ago
Adjusted to be more treefolk tribal than originally designed. Would not object to finding some more decent (and cheap) black goodness for the deck.
Removed Zombies
sirchristian, 12 years ago
During recent plays I was finding that I lacked zombies, so I sacked the zombie plan (zombies will come back from the dead in a Grimgrin, The Corpse-born deck. I have tried to shift the deck into more of a Grixis control/reanimate theme. Don't think I'm quite there yet though.
I'm afraid I don't have enough creatures, or enough reanimate effects. But I'm also unsure of what to cut.
Fourth Cut
jan2692wal, 12 years ago
I removed 3 Elsewhere Flask and replaced them with 1 Pyrite Spellbomb and 2 Aether Spellbomb. The reason for this is taht i played against an Esper variant of Modern Fish and the kid played Meddling Mage and it totally messed everything up for me because i had no removal. I did find out that the deck can function without the Lotus Blooms, although its alot trickier to win without them.
Needless to say i went 0-2 against that deck.
I need to practice playing in situations where I'm unable to use the lotus blooms so that if I end up in a similar situation i know if i can win or not.
Deck Modifications #1
dereklmc, 12 years ago
I spent a week tinkering with the to, hopefully, be more aggressive.
I first replaced Pacifism, which has one of my favourite flavor text's, with Bonds of Faith. I wish I paid closer attention to this card when I originally built the deck. Previous, because I had three each of them, Pacifism, Oblivion Ring, and Arrest would crop up a lot early game and sit useless in my hand for several turns. Bonds of Faith, though, is rather versitile in a Human deck. I drop on my creatures for a boost or my opponent's creatures to change the tide of battle.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben seems like a great card. For two mana, you can slow down your opponent's early game and give yourself some breathing room. But, it slows down your ability to control the battelfield. I've also found that, by the time I want to cast it, my opponent has enough mana that Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a minor annoyance. I took one of her out, for now, to help make room for Crusader of Odric.
I also took out all four of Unruly Mob and two of Thraben Sentry Flip. These two card benefit when your creature's die. Whereas, my deck is focused on playing or creating creatures to benefit Champion of the Parish or Crusader of Odric. In the place of Unruly Mob and Thraben Sentry Flip are four Gather the Townsfolk, and two Crusader of Odric.
Now, I want to find a better card than Hero of Bladehold because its token generation doesn't help too much. I also want to find good replacements for the remaining Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Thraben Sentry Flip.
Update 1
jan2692wal, 12 years ago
So above is a semi-final decklist, I feel like its lacking alot though, I'm not sure what though. I definitely need mana rocks, and i think i can benefit from some ramp spells, but I'm not sure if its necessary
Update 2
jan2692wal, 12 years ago
I'm looking for more win-conditions than the ones in this deck already. So far I have:
1) Big creatures like Primordial Hydra and Omnath, Locus of Mana, then tokens produced by Wolfrbriar Elemental after some ramping has occured
2) Helix Pinnacle, because i have so much man floating around
3) Dark Depths. Marit Lage. 'Nuff said.
4) Naked Singularity + Prismatic Omen is a fun way to lock down your opponents, it screws up their mana base and makes most of their cards unplayable.
I want this deck to become as competitive as possible, so please give me lots of suggestions =)
tweaked it a little
Forgotten_Oracle, 12 years ago
I still feel wild guess can be a huge benefit to speeding this deck up to be competitive. 21 lands seems to be running okay, but I keep extras in the side board just in case. I am going to work to seek if I can't get this to perform wonderfully in FNM next time. Thinking about Angel of Glory's Rise as a sideboard bomb for massive board wipes like Supreme Verdict. Any thoughts let me know!
Update 1
jan2692wal, 12 years ago
Alrighty, so I finally have a finalized decklist (aside from the mana base, which is what i will be working on figuring out now. I input a bunch of basic lands and 9 misty rainforest just to block out how i want to divide it up. I'm thinking 6-9 fetch lands, 2/3's of the remaining lands produce colored mana, and 1/3 producing colorless or colored with a drawback), and here it is below:
Creature (20) 1x Acidic Slime 1x Artisan of Kozilek 1x Consecrated Sphinx 1x Deceiver Exarch 1x Djinn Illuminatus 1x Eternal Witness 1x Gaea's Revenge 1x Guile 1x Hypersonic Dragon 1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker 1x Lighthouse Chronologist 1x Maelstrom Wanderer 1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind 1x Pestermite 1x Phyrexian Metamorph 1x Riku of Two Reflections 1x Snapcaster Mage 1x Taurean Mauler 1x Tidespout Tyrant
Land (36) 12x Forest 12x Island 12x Mountain
Instant (19) 1x Boomerang 1x Brainstorm 1x Cerebral Vortex 1x Counterflux 1x Counterspell 1x Cyclonic Rift 1x Dissipate 1x Gigadrowse 1x Harrow 1x Mystical Tutor 1x Noxious Revival 1x Redirect 1x Reiterate 1x Reroute 1x Reverberate 1x Swerve 1x Twincast 1x Voidslime 1x Wild Ricochet
Enchantment (4) 1x Cast Through Time 1x Cloven Casting 1x Mana Reflection 1x Mirror Sheen
Sorcery (16) 1x Decimate 1x Drain Power 1x Explosive Vegetation 1x Farseek 1x Insurrection 1x Ponder 1x Revive 1x Rite of Replication 1x Serum Visions 1x Shattering Spree 1x Temporal Mastery 1x Time Spiral 1x Time Stretch 1x Tooth and Nail 1x Train of Thought 1x Vacuumelt
Artifact (6) 1x Isochron Scepter 1x Mirari 1x Mirror Gallery 1x Panoptic Mirror 1x Sensei's Divining Top 1x Sol Ring
So there's one infinite combo in this deck, and that is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch. Other wise, its kind of a troll deck. Theres lots of control, lots of taking extra turns, and lots and lots of copying spells. And while it seems fun, I don't want to pump money into this to have it not win, so I am still looking for more win conditions, I don't mind infinite combos at all, and my play group isn't a bunch of cry babies so even for casual play theyre alright.
So, in summary:
1) I am looking for more win conditions 2) ways to make this deck more competitive 3) and land suggestions. I know about the dual lands and the shocklands and all that jazz, I'm hoping for suggestions for lands with added utility.
Thanks!
Initial Decklist
jan2692wal, 12 years ago
This is the initial decklist, I'm looking to refine it, seeing as its 31 cards over the limit. The mana base will be rather intricate, so that is the main area I'm looking for suggestions in.
FNM update
Forgotten_Oracle, 12 years ago
Placed fourth, went 4-1-0 with a draw in to the final. I faced the same guy who beat me in round two and I smashed him 2-0 so technically I was undefeated as the rematch went in my favor to stick in the top 4. Pretty freaking awesome :) Deck is pretty well done, I may tweak it a little, but I am afraid I would probably not do so well as most people will make additions like board wipes to their sideboard next week.
1st FNM
Zomgasa, 12 years ago
2:2
Round 1; (0-2) was a Jund Zombies deck that dropped too much for me to handle and was running non-targeted removal to force a sac of the one or two creatures I had out. Lost.
Round 2: (1-2) was a near mirror-match deck which ran more creatures.
Round 3: (2-1) was a match against an Azorius Detain/Life-Gain deck which was overcome by hexproof. Won.
Round 4: (2-0) was an Azorius Aggro deck that was put too far behind once I dropped Invisible Stalker and enchanted it.
Each loss was in part due to not drawing into a creature early enough. Bonds of Faith Helped largely against the Zombie deck but was a far less helpful draw going against the other human-based decks. I was running with an incomplete Sideboard ( 2 Temporal Masterys and 2 Cyclonic Rifts in place of the 4 Latch Seekers) and I would have much rather have had the extra creatures. Feeling of Dread was a winning card a few times when they would leave blockers for Traft.
FNM Results
Vraskatheseen, 12 years ago
I actually went undefeated all night up till my Top 4 match. My only loss besides that loss was one game to a Battle of Wits deck that had a lucky ass opening hand, lol. My overall record for the night was 7-3-2 (I drew into top 8 with my friend) Match 1 was against U/W Control. Match 2 was a Battle of Wits deck. Match 3 was G/W Control. Match 4 would have been America Mid-range. Top 8 was another G/W Control. Top 4 was against Mono-red, but he got a lucky top deck and won by 5 life. P.S. My meta has ~40 players and we play 4 rounds, then the top 8 players play for top spot.
RaidenXS, 12 years ago
1x Eternal Witness has replaced 1x Harmonic Sliver
1x Harmonic Sliver moved to sideboard.
FNM
shirtninja, 12 years ago
Went undefeated at FNM in five rounds (2-0, 2-0, 2-0, 2-0, 2-1). So yeah. That's alright.
